Freight Train Derails Downtown Union Blvd. Is Cut Off All Day Long

Six hopper cars in a 72-car freight train derailed about 5:10 a.m. yesterday, forcing Bethlehem police to detour Union Boulevard traffic between Main Street and 3rd Avenue all day long.

Conrail crews expected to clear the damaged cars and have the tracks repaired by midnight last night.

The train, headed by four locomotives, was southbound on a branch line paralleling the Monocacy Creek when the second through the eighth cars derailed about 150 yards south of the Union Boulevard grade crossing.

No one was injured and no hazardous cargo was involved. The derailed open hopper cars were carrying a loose aggregate described as clinker, a cement plant product. Some of the cars spilled clinker along the east side of the right-of-way as they tipped over. None of the cargo, which has the consistency of large pebbles, ran into the creek.

Police traffic Sgt. Eugene Learn said the remaining cars of the train could not be moved to open the Union Boulevard crossing. The branch rail line dead-ends at its northern terminus in upper Northampton County. It was impossible to get a locomotive to approach from the north end to pull the train off the crossing.

Police said consideration was given during the morning to bringing in a bulldozer to split the train at Union Boulevard and push the string of cars north of the crossing. This apparently was not feasible because of the train's weight and the difficulty in getting a vehicle into position alongside the single track at a point north of Union Boulevard. The track also has an uphill grade from south to north at that point.

Jack Craig, Conrail's terminal superintendent at Allentown, said each hopper car weighs 30 tons empty and has a capacity of 100 tons. He said the train originated in Allentown, went to Easton to service industries, and was completing a similar service mission along the Monocacy Creek branch line when the derailment occurred.

Craig said the branch line is rated for a maximum speed of 10 miles per hour. He said the speed monitoring tape obtained from one of the locomotives indicated that the engineer had not exceeded this limit. He said a conclusion on the cause of the derailment could not be reached until the wrecked cars were cleared.

Craig explained that after the damaged tracks are examined, information about the derailment will be sent to Conrail offices in Philadelphia, where a simulator computer will determine the cause.

The crossing was repaired during August and September of 1984 in response to complaints about its deteriorated condition.

Learn said the remaining freight cars stood in a line about three-quarters of a mile north of Union Boulevard, with the end near the Mauch Chunk Road grade crossing. He said the train was split near this end and a payloader was used to move freight cars enough to open a private crossing into the Frank Casilio & Sons plant.

Conrail employees, using a crane on a work train that approached the scene from the south and another crane driven in from ConestogaStreet, rerailed the hopper cars. The fifth of the six was set back on the track by 8 p.m.

Police Capt. Joseph Kelly said traffic congestion associated with the derailment detour was compounded by rerouting instituted late last month to allow storm sewer improvement work to proceed on Main Street near Goepp Street.

While barricades were used to close Union Boulevard and Conestoga Street between Union Boulevard and Spring Street, policemen were assigned posts at key intersections to move traffic during the morning and afternoon rush hours. Detour signs were placed at 8:30 a.m. and remained until about 9 p.m.